Banker confirms Erap’s P44-M account in ’98

Government prosecutors have accused deposed President Joseph Estrada of perjury for not declaring a bank account in his 1998 financial statement when he was president as required by law.

According to bank official Renato Balatbat, who took the witness stand for the prosecution yesterday, Estrada opened a Keppel Bank account on Aug. 10, 1990, when he was still a senator.

He closed the account on Dec. 18, 1998, more than five months after he assumed office on June 30. Estrada had over P44 million in the account when he closed it, said Balatbat, manager of the Caloocan City bank branch where Estrada opened the account.

Senior State Prosecutor Alexander Padilla said Estrada committed perjury when he did not declare the bank account in his 1998 statement of assets and liabilities.

All government officials — including the President — are required by law to a submit a statement on their assets and liabilities after the end of the year to see if they are amassing illegal wealth.

Violations are punishable by fine or suspension, or both, depending on the gravity of the offense.

Defense lawyer Prospero Crescini contested Balatbat’s testimony that Estrada had kept an account at the bank.

Upon questioning, Balatbat said Keppel Bank had no means of verifying if the Joseph Ejercito Estrada that appeared on bank documents was the former president.

He also said he was not yet connected with Keppel when Estrada supposedly opened the account. He was hired in January 1995.

Estrada, who was elected in 1998 to a six-year term, was ousted in January 2001 in a military-backed massive popular protest when his impeachment trial ended in a farce.

The Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over.

Estrada is being tried for corruption and economic plunder, charges that carry the death penalty or life in prison. He is accused of amassing more than P4 billion during his 31-month rule.

He is also accused of keeping a bank account under the name "Jose Velarde," which prosecutors said he used to launder proceeds from a protection racket that he set up for illegal gambling operations.

The proceeds were allegedly used to acquire mansions for himself and several of his mistresses.

The former actor, who remains hugely popular among the masses, has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and claimed the trial was rigged.

He insisted he has not resigned and that he was illegally ousted from the presidency and, therefore, immune from lawsuits. He had fired his battery of top-notch lawyers but the court has provided him government-appointed counsel against his wishes.

His trial yesterday took a side trip when two lawyers of one of Estrada’s co-accused, Edward Serapio, got the ire of presiding justice Minita Chico-Nazario.

Sabino Acut asked the court to allow him and his partner, Martin Pison, not to attend the Wednesday hearings, which are on Estrada’s two perjury charges and one charge of illegal use of an alias.

Acut said their client, Estrada’s personal lawyer, is not an accused in the three charges and, therefore, do not affect him.

Serapio was the secretary general of the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation, believed to be a front to cover Estrada’s alleged wealth that he amassed illegally during his presidency.

Nazario rejected the request, saying they earlier ruled on a similar request and required all the lawyers of Estrada and his co-accused to attend all the hearings.

"For your protection and that of your client, we are requiring you to attend the trials," Nazario ordered.

Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval added the evidence the prosecution will present in hearings on the plunder charge against Estrada – in which Serapio is one of the seven co-accused – and on the perjury and illegal alias charges could later serve as evidence against Serapio.

"Undeclared properties which could serve as evidence relating to perjury may be part of the subject properties in the plunder case, to which your client is co-conspirator," he said.